Cold sesame seed soba with smoked salmon

When it was freezing cold in Modena, I was wishing so fervently for summer. And now that summer is here, with temperatures hovering around 37-38 degrees lately, I wish it was winter all over again. Thats the problem with Modena, we get winters that are quite cold (there was one day where it was minus 16 degrees celcius last year) and summers that are very hot. It can hit 40 degrees at times. Right now I wish we had air-conditioning at home.

I have been itching to cook, but with the hot hot weather, I’ve been feeling sluggish and sleepy. I decided to make this cold sesame seed soba with smoked salmon for dinner tonight. It would be a nice change to our regular hot dinners.

Cold sesame seed soba with smoked salmon

Ingredients

250g soba noodles

100g smoked salmon, cubed

70g sesame seeds

3 tsps rice vinegar ( I didn’t have this and substituted with Chinese vinegar)

6 tsps soy sauce

3 tsps honey

3 tsps sesame oil

A handful of sliced spring onion

Method

1. In a dry pan, toast sesame seeds till it turns a golden brown. Watch it carefully, it burns easily! Remove into a bowl immediately.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Do not salt it. When water comes to a boil, add in the noodles. Cook for 5-6 minutes or according to packet instructions. It should be tender, not al dente or soggy.

3. When cooked, drain water and plunge into a big bowl of cold water. Rinse with a few rounds of cold water.

4. In the bowl that you will serve the noodles, add soy sauce, vinegar, honey and sesame oil. Mix well to incorporate.

[…] fried with a batter. That very day, I went to the organic shop just across my house to buy some Japanese soba. And what did I see? TEMPEH! Unbelievable. Of course I had to buy a packet. It didn’t come […]